Recruitment and Hiring InitiativesJeffrey O. G. OgbarVice Provost for DiversityUniversity of Connecticut2012-2013

Diversity: A Vision at UConn

The Academic Plan, 2009-2014, “Our World, Our People, Our Future,” and Diversity

In our research and teaching, as in our outreach, we envision an inclusive community that celebrates diversity, promotes civility, advances global awareness, and cultivates leadership, integrity, and engaged citizenship in our students, faculty, and staff.

Diversity and UConn

•Expands horizons: intellectual, cultural, scholarly, etc.

•Enhances critical thinking skills•Enriches educational experience•Encourages healthy workplace and social

development opportunities▫Measurable institutional outcomes:

graduation rates, promotion, tenure, retention, etc.

Recruiting Underrepresented Faculty• What are “diverse” faculty?

▫ Faculty can bring diversity to a given department, school or college in a wide range of ways: intellectual, scholarship, race, gender, etc. The ways in which diversity is defined remains dynamic.

• Age

• National Origin

• Color Race Ethnicity

• Religion

• Disabilities

• Socio-Economic Background

• Gender

• Thoughts and Attitudes

These categories are included in the University’s definition of diversity and were approved by the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees in August 2002.

Unintended Challenges in Faculty Hiring Process

•Problematic search committee composition•Under utilization of informal and formal

networks

▫ Academic Leadership Team for Effective Recruiting & Retention (ALTERR)Committee model in College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

▫ Possible search committee members from outside of department.

▫ Identifying biases, subtle and otherwise in search process, e.g. letter length, adjective use, personal life references, etc.

Our student body is diverse, shouldn’t we be?

Nelson & Rodgers (2006). A National Analysis of Diversity in Science and Engineering Faculties at Research Universities.

“Female student attrition in science and engineering has been attributed, in part, to a

lack of female mentors and role models.”

Our student body is diverse, shouldn’t we be?

~50% of all doctorate degrees in the USA are earned by women;

however, women constitute only 39% of full-time faculty nationally

(women earn 40% of doctorate degrees in science & engineering but

make up only 28% of full-time faculty) The most prestigious academic positions are occupied by even fewer

women Only 24% of academic full professor positions are held by women

nationwide (19% in science and engineering fields)

:

Huang (n.d.). Gender Bias in Academia: Findings from Focus Groups

Letters of recommendation: common pitfalls

•Letters for men tend to be longer than those for women.

•Letters for women tend to highlight teaching and training over research.

•Letters for women tend to discuss their personal details more that those for men.

Trix & Psenka (2003) Discourse & Society 14: 191

Picking the short list:•Having more than one female or

minority candidate de-emphasizes their ‘uniqueness’.

•Be open to the idea that there is more than one way to measure excellence.

•Look for inconsistencies between letters and CV to check for biases.

The Search Process•The search committee should represent a

cross-section of faculty that can bring diverse perspectives and input into accessing resources and professional networks.

•The search committee should meet with representatives of the Office of Diversity and Equity (ODE) to ensure close adherence to legal regulations and university policy.

The Search Process, Pt. II

•Consult the Dean and Vice Provost for Diversity for proactive advice, oversight or other input to execute a successful search, utilizing the greatest range of resources and securing the best results.

The Search Process, Pt. III

•Make available to all candidates access to various resources at the University of Connecticut and its surrounding communities. A VP for Diversity website with links to restaurants, religious institutions, university-based centers and institutes is available: (diversity.uconn.edu)

Recruiting Underrepresented Faculty•Utilize formal and informal networks

▫Personal and professional contacts should be exploited to identify prospective candidates for hire. Contacting colleagues at various institutions for suggestions is encouraged. Identifying and encouraging a “dream” candidate to apply can prove effective.

▫Announcements on professional lists or websites

Recruiting Underrepresented Faculty, Pt. II•Cast a wide net: advertisements, job

postings▫General-interest academic publications, such

as the Chronicle are important, as well as those targeted to certain communities, such as Diverse Issues in Higher Education (Ads to direct to Husky Hire), specialty journals targeted to underrepresented groups, other free options like H-Net, various academic wiki sites are increasingly used by younger tech-savvy job candidates.

Recruiting Underrepresented Faculty, Pt. III• Utilize discipline-specific directories

▫Many disciplines have very specific affinity-group professional associations. Some, like the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, are more established and discipline-specific, but not populated by a specific URG necessarily. Though mostly black, many members of ASALH are white. Others, like the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers or the Association for Women in Science are, by design, populated by URG.

Recruiting Underrepresented Faculty, Pt. IV•Consider scholars with long-term

relationships with colleagues and departments or programs.▫These may be scholars who have served as

co-P.I.s, co-authors or other professional collaborators with UConn faculty.

Joint-Appointment Hires

•Consider the talent and resources of areas of excellent at the University. The Women and Gender Studies Program, Institute for African American Studies, El Instituto and Asian American Studies Institute provide great possibilities for joint-hires.

Short-term options: Visiting Faculty •There are models for visiting faculty in

certain fields. These may be faculty exchanges with targeted HBCUs or HSIs. The John Hope Franklin Humanities Center at Duke provides a model for this. We may focus on STEM faculty from schools with exceptional reputations like Spelman College, Morehouse College and Howard University.

Promote UConn!

•The University of Connecticut is a leading, national major research university. The image, reputation of UConn are such that we can compete with major universities. People are attracted to resources, supportive and healthy environments, professional options and vibrant communities. We have this. Keep in mind that Ann Arbor, Ithaca, Urbana-Champagne and Chapel Hill are not major metropolises.

Appendix: Resources for faculty Search Committees

We encourage faculty search committees to assiduously expand pools of job candidates, increasing options for hiring the most competitive and talented faculty available. The

following links provide access to a diverse group of professional associations.• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

▫ http://www.stemedcoalition.org/ (home link)▫ http://www.stemedcoalition.org/stem-ed-coalition-activities (Positions and

Activities) • National Society of Black Engineers

▫ http://www.nsbe.org (home link)▫ https://www.nsbe.org/login.aspx?af=NSBE&tp=jpc_dev%2Fjpc_login.asp&param

=jid%3D (Job Placement Center)

 • Association for Women in Science

▫ http://www.awis.org (home link)▫ http://www.awis.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=3 (Career Center)

 • Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers

▫ http://www.shpe.org (home link)▫ http://www.shpe.org/index.php/employment (Employment)▫ http://www.shpefoundation.org/internships (Internships)

Resources for Faculty Search Committees IIDatabase Links• Advance (Rice University)

▫ http://www.advance.rice.edu/nifpdb.aspx

• National Endowment for the Humanities▫ https://securegrants.neh.gov/publicquery/main.aspx

• National Institutes of Health▫ http://report.nih.gov/searchable_public_databases/index.aspx

(searchable public databases) 

• National Research Council▫ http://nationalacademies.org/about/awards/index.html

Resources for Faculty Search Committees IIIDatabase Links• National Science Foundation

▫ http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch ▫ CADRE (K-12 research)

http://cadrek12.org/nsf-dr-k-12

• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics▫ http://mathflix.luc.edu/ContentIndex/nctm-content-index-computer.html

• Ford Foundation▫ http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/search  

• McKnight Fellows for the State of Florida▫ http://fefonline.org/mdf.html

• Committee on Institutional Cooperation▫ https://www-s.cic.net/programs/CICCourseShare/archive/ResourceList/

courseShareWebTool